Interpreting Immigration Records

There are many records in the Peter Rempel book Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788-1828 that give economic information about the families that immigrated from Prussia to Russia.  But it's hard to know how to interpret this information.  And this applies not only to immigration records but Prussian census records, US tax records, and many other sources.  The key is to put the information in context.

For example, I was looking at the immigration arrival record of Gerhard Fast #117515 (ABT 1774-1830) who moved to Russia in 1819.  Here's the translation of that record from the book:

Peter Rempel, Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788-1828 (Winnipeg, Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2000) 168

From comparing to Grandma, you can figure out that the unnamed females are his wife Helena Wiebe and his eleven-year-old daughter Katharina.  Gerhard and Helena had five children, but four of them had died already, leaving only Katharina.

Next, they had no cash and no horses, which means that they probably walked the roughly nine hundred miles and carried their few possessions on their backs or in a hand cart.  They had to be tough and determined to make such a long journey on foot.  Or perhaps, they rode on the wagon of friends or relatives who were in their group of immigrants.  That also means that they were dependent on subsidies from the Russian government to eat along the way and to start their new farm in Russia.

Finally, they had household possessions worth 129 rubles.  There's no way to convert rubles from that time period to current dollars, so that number alone doesn't mean much.  But Peter Rempel gave source citations for all his translations.  In this case, it comes from list "W4," and if you look at the back of his book, he gives the original source for all his translations.

He deposited a microfilm with all his original sources at the Mennonite Historical Centre Archive in Winnipeg, and I got a copy of the original.  Here is the snippet of Gerhard Fast's arrival record:

Gergard" Fast" arrival record, family #80, Spisok" o pribyvshykh" iz" zagranitsy v" 1819-go Menonistakh" i poselennykh" v" Khotitskykh" i Molochanskykh" koloniakh" [List of Mennonite and settler arrivals from abroad in 1819 to Khortista and Molochansk villages], no date, Russian State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg, Russia, Fund 383, Inventory 29, File 443, Pages 246R at Mennonite Historical Center Archive, Winnipeg, Manitoba, St. Petersburg Archive collection reel #4.

Here is what the columns mean:
Family #80
Head of household - Gergard" Fast"
1 male (Gerhard)
2 females (wife Helena Wiebe and daughter Katharina)
3 total people
no cash
no horses
household possessions worth 129 rubles
total possessions worth 129 rubles (i.e. including cash, horses, and household possessions)

There were 177 families listed in this document, and the clerk totaled the value of all their possessions at the end, so we can figure out the average that each family had.  Perhaps this group was unusually wealthy or unusually poor - we don't know.  But we can see where Gerhard and his family fit in the group.

 
Recall that first three columns list the number of males, females, and total people.  The fourth column is the cash they brought, which totaled 113,615 rubles for 177 families, or an average of 642 rubles per family.  Gerhard had no cash, so he was definitely among the poorer in the group.

The next column is the horses, which were worth 9036 rubles (the document doesn't tell us the number of horses, just their value), which would be an average of 51-rubles-worth of horses per family.

Then the household possessions are totaled at 47,814 rubles, or an average of 270 rubles per family.  Gerhard's family had 129 rubles, so they had less than half the average.  

The final column is the value of total possessions, which is 172,462 rubles, or an average of 974 rubles per family.  Again Gerhard had only 129 rubles worth of total possessions.

In all the economic measures in the immigration report, Gerhard and Helena Fast were definitely poor.  They weren't the poorest because there were families who came with literally nothing.  But they were close to the bottom.

This context tells us a lot about Gerhard's family.  They must have come from real poverty in Prussia, walked to the Molotschna colony in Russia and were given a farm in the Rudnerweide village.  They would have had a lot of work to build their farm in Russia into a viable economic unit.  But you can understand why a poor family from West Prussia would be willing to undertake such a difficult journey.  Not only did immigration give them the opportunity to practice their faith in Russia without the restrictions that Prussia put on the Mennonites, but also it gave them a chance to escape grinding poverty.  Perhaps their poverty back in West Prussia even explains why their first four children died young.  This was truly a new beginning.

Whenever you come across records with areas of land or amounts of money, try to put them in context.  If you can find the totals for the village or the group of immigrants, then you can compare them to the average.  The principle applies to any kind of records, even to more recent property tax records from the US.  Thus you can give context to the lives of your ancestors. 
 

Getting US & Canadian Vital Records

I've been haphazardly sending off for a death certificate or a marriage license or a birth registration when I was working on a certain ancestor or just happened to think of it.  I realized it would be more efficient to send all the Kansas requests, for example, at one time so that I just have to make one copy of my identification, write one check, mail one envelope, etc.  That led to making a spreadsheet for all my ancestors who had lived in North America to show whether I had their government birth, marriage, death, and probate records so that I would know which ones to send for.  I added a column for naturalization since it is a government record and one for burial location since it is so closely linked to the death record.

Here's the link to my spreadsheet if you want to download it and do something similar.

This exercise really helped me see 1) which records I can send off for right away and 2) which things require more research.  I was also surprised how many I had already gotten.

I learned a number of things in doing this work. 
a) Many counties kept vital records long before states did.  Some of these have been scanned and indexed online by Ancestry or FamilySearch (images are rarely online) and some images are available on microfilm from the Family History Library.  The originals are in county courthouses.

b) The FamilySearch Wiki for individual states and counties is becoming a great resource.  Not long ago, most of the pages were stubs, but now this resource has become a quick way to find start dates for county and state vital records, as well as links and other information.  Just google the state or county that you want, e.g. "Oklahoma FamilySearch Wiki" or "York County Nebraska FamilySearch Wiki."

c) If you google the name of the state and "vital records genealogy," you usually get the state's web site for ordering vital records.  You need to add the word "genealogy" because most of the work of these agencies relates to current birth, marriage, and death certificates.  (I'll never forget standing in a line of very affectionate couples waiting to get their marriage licenses so that I could request a 1906 death certificate in Fort Bend Co., Tex.)  You have to download, print, and sign and mail a form and include a copy of identification

d) The process for Manitoba and Saskatchewan is quite a bit simpler - you can search an online database, add the records you want to the cart, and download a request form with the file numbers you are requesting already printed on it.  Oklahoma is moving to a system like this in 2017.

e) Don't forget that there are other sources for these events as well that substitute for missing government records.  Church records usually give birth, marriage, death, and burial information; so it's important to find those as well.  Newspaper obituaries give death dates and often burial information.  Diaries and letters are good sources as well.

I've got a list of vital records to request now and a more efficient way to do it.  And hopefully this will motivate you to make a list of your own.

Trying Legacy

I've been a committed user of Brother's Keeper for my genealogy software since I got back into genealogy in 2010.  But I bought a copy of Legacy a few years ago for its charting functions, which are vastly superior to BK.  When I watch Family Tree Webinars, Geoff Rasmussen is always demonstrating some snazzy function on Legacy, so I finally decided to give it a try.  Here's what I've found so far:

Pro's:
1.  The system of master sources and greater detail for sourcing is excellent
2.  Many more options for storing and displaying data
3.  Better to-do reports - This may be the key item for me because I find that I miss things when I go to a certain repository.  BK has only a primitive to-do system.
4.  More search options

Con's:
1.  Slower than BK - With 1 million+ names in the database, it just has a lot to crunch
2.  ID numbers, which are so important in the Grandma database, are present but sort of buried
3.  BK has a much cleaner interface - This is a big deal for me.

What genealogy software do you use?  What are the pro's and con's?  Let us know in a comment.

Interesting Ancestor Chart

I found a neat ancestor chart at a site called Learn Forever Learn.  I had been thinking about doing something like this with pencil and paper for a while but never got started on it.  The tree shows a line for the life of each ancestor, starting at the right birth and death year.  And it shows the pedigree collapse that is common among Mennonites due to endogamy.  And it has a time line of world events that pops up whenever you scroll down the lines.  All you have to do is upload a gedcom.

My family tree at LearnForeverLearn.com/ancestors.

I would like to have the option to color lines differently, say to show generations so that all my great-grandparents would be one color, or to show everyone born in Russia in one color.  But all in all, it's a fun tool.

My Storage Is Acidic!

I just tested my storage materials with the Abbey pH pen and found that some of them are acidic.  Here's the link to the pen on Gaylord Archival, but there are a lot of options on the market.  If you draw a line with the pen, it will be yellow if it is acidic and purple if it is alkaline.  The mark is permanent, so don't do it on a valuable document.

The Good News

• Plain copy paper from Office Depot is alkaline.  So I don't have to buy whatever expensive paper the archival suppliers are selling.
• My plastic document sleeves are good.  Polypropylene sleeves are good but others are acidic - sometimes you can even smell chlorine or something awful when you open a sleeve and sniff and those are definitely acidic.

The Bad News

• One of my cardboard document storage boxes is a leftover from U-Haul from my latest move, and it's acidic.  But all the boxes I bought from an archival supplier are alkaline.  So this news is just a little bit bad and mostly good.

The Ugly News

• My manila folders (at least some of them) are acidic.  No good storing my genealogy records in acidic folders, so I'll replace all of those.  I had made one folder for each ancestor and stuck a label on it with the ancestor's name, dates, and Grandma number, so I'll have to re-do all those labels.  Office Depot sells non-acidic manila folders that are a bit more expensive, but not as bad as the ones from archival suppliers, so I'll order a box of those.

The Moral

• Always look for "acid-free" when you are buying genealogy supplies.  You don't want to leave a yellowed, crumbling mess to posterity after all the work you've done on research.
• Test materials with a pH pen before you buy and use a bunch of them.

Not Finding a Grave

I've been searching for and not finding the grave of Elisabeth (Fast) Sudermann #26678 (1817-1892).  Sometimes even when there are a billion graves, you need the billion-and-first grave.  OK, enough of the bad puns.

Elisabeth Sudermann was my great-great-grandmother, and she died near Newton, Kansas, on 15 May 1892, on the farm of her daughter and son-in-law, John and Katharina (Suderman) Thiessen.[1]

Find A Grave says that she is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Newton, Kansas.

Tombstone of Elisabeth Fast Sudermann, #30387659, Greenwood Cemetery, Newton, Kansas.  Accessed at Findagrave.com on 15 December 2016.

I quickly noticed a couple things - there is no photograph of the tombstone and no plot information.  Often records that are missing this information have problems, so a red flag went up.  After procrastinating on going out there for a couple years, I decided to go to the cemetery yesterday to see what I could find.

But first I did some research at home.  Her obituaries gave no information about her burial location.  The City of Newton has a really nice search function for the Greenwood Cemetery online, so I tried that.  It came up with a possible hit, Elizabeth Suderman, but the burial date of 13 January 1898, didn't agree with the burial date of 19 May 1892 in her obituary.

Search for "Suderman" at http://www.newtonkansas.com/how-do-i-/request-/cemetery-plot-information on 15 December 2016

When I clicked on the link for her name, I got an age of 60 years, 11 months, which would mean a birth date of about 1837, and I was hoping for 1817, so it's not getting any better.

But it gave me a plot number, so I could go out there and easily find the grave.

Using the same process, I did find her son-in-law, Jacob Thiessen, with whom she was living when she died.  I know it's him because his death date and age match and because he was a member at 1st Mennonite in Newton, which used the Greenwood Cemetery.  He was buried on 1 August 1910, in plot 1st Addition 12-30-5, so at least I know that the family did use the cemetery.

Then I went to the cemetery, and the sexton was very helpful.  We looked in the index book and found the same information as I had found online.  But he also had a card index that showed all the burials in a lot.

Index card, First Addition 5-29, Greenwood Cemetery, Newton, Kansas.

So the Elizabeth Suderman whom I found in the online index was buried in plot #8 (circled in red), along with what turns out to be her son and husband.  The top of Abraham Sudermann's tombstone had his parents' information on it.  I took a picture, but the tombstone was really worn, and it was cold and windy (enough excuses for the bad photo).  But the transcription says, "Elizabeth Sudermann geb. Ediger Jan. 21, 1837 - gest. Jan. 12, 1898."  "Geb." is geboren or born, and "gest." is gestorben or died in German.

Tombstone of Elizabeth Sudermann, died 12 January 1898, Greenwood Cemetery, Newton, Kansas, 1st Addition, plot 5-29-8A, photo by author on 14 December 2016.

She turned out to be Elisabeth Ediger, #104305 in Grandma, and her husband was Herrmann Sudermann, whose inscription is just above hers on the tombstone.  According to Grandma, these Sudermans are not related to my Sudermans.

I found all the people who were buried in this plot in Grandma, as well as those in her son-in-law Jacob Thiessen's plot.  None of them, other than Jacob Thiessen, were related.  I'm guessing that someone confused the Elisabeth (Ediger) Sudermann who is buried here with my Elisabeth (Fast) Sudermann.

The only thing that gives me pause is a little note in the lower righthand corner of the index card (circled in blue) that says (I think), "Space 5? POEncl 2/5/92."  Since my Elisabeth Sudermann died in 1892, could this be a possible reference to her?  I doubt it since I don't see a name, and the date is 5 February 1892, which is not the same as her burial date of 19 May 1892.  But I can't be sure.

What next?  I sent an e-mail to First Mennonite in Newton, where her daughter was a member.  Since she was living with her daughter when she died, perhaps they have more information.  I also want to go to the Harvey County courthouse to find the land records for Jacob Thiessen so that I can find exactly where their farm was - perhaps she was buried on the farm, which was a common practice in the early years after immigration.

---

[1] Johann J. Sudermann and Maria Sudermann, Letter to the Editor, Mennonitische Rundschau und Herold der Wahrheit, Elkhart, Indiana, 25 May 1892, p.1, held by Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Going to the Courthouse - Other Records

There are many more minor groups of records in courthouses that can still be of great interest to genealogists.  You may not be able to find all of these in all counties, but they are all worth pursuing.

Cemetery Records.  Most courthouses have a list of cemeteries in the county, including small and private cemeteries and single burials, most commonly in the county clerk's office.  Don't miss the chance to find your ancestor's grave.

School Records.  As recently as half a century ago, counties were blanketed with rural school districts.  The county clerk may have records from these school districts, including censuses of school-age children, board meeting minutes, and even children's grades, although many have been lost or destroyed.  Was your ancestor on the school board?  You'll need to find a map of school districts for the county to figure out which school your ancestor attended.  Here is an example I found when my grandmother Elisabeth (Suderman) Fast was listed among the school-age children of Paris School District #23 in Harvey County, Kansas, in 1898.

Census of School Population, 30 July 1898, Paris School District #23, Harvey County, Kansas, Register of Deeds, Courthouse, Newton.

This school census showed that the Suderman family was still living in Kansas in the middle of 1898, even though their father had bought land in south Texas in December 1897.

Criminal and Civil Court Records.  I suspect that far more of our ancestors were involved in criminal and civil cases than we realize today.  Occasionally these records are indexed, but far more often they are unindexed and located in dusty volumes in a vault.  If there is an index, I always check it for my ancestors.  On the rare occasion that I know that they were involved in a case, I will search for it, but this is usually a hard set of documents to search.

Vital Records.  Sometimes counties kept vital records of births, marriages, and deaths before the official state-mandated recording began; so these may be the only official source for these events.  For example, I found the marriage license for my great-grandparents Heinrich F. Reimer #317342 (1856-1923) and Katharina Barkman #317343 (1856-1943), who were married on 5 February 1880.  Nebraska did not keep state marriage records until 1909, but Jefferson County started in 1864.

Marriage license of Heinrich Reimer and Catharina Barkmann, 5 February 1880, Jefferson County, Nebraska, No. 473437, County Clerk's Office, Courthouse, Fairbury.

This document gave me the date and place of their marriage, their parents, the witnesses, and the minister who performed the wedding.  And it was issued by the county a full twenty-nine years before the state required them to do so.  Writing to Lincoln would not have produced this gem.

While you are in town, make sure to visit the genealogy room at the city or county library and the local historical museum.  They may have city directories, farm directories, newspaper clippings, town and county histories, family histories, collections of local letters and diaries, photographs, and much, much more.  Go to the church where your ancestor worshiped to look at their records.  If you still have relatives, even distant cousins, in the county, connect with them as they may have valuable records and stories that need to be written down as well.

By now you should have at least a week's worth of research to do in any county where your ancestor lived.  Good luck and happy hunting!

Going to the Courthouse - Naturalization Records

Amazingly to those of us living in the early 21st century when immigration and citizenship is highly contentious and tighly controlled by the federal government, until the 1920s, a state of laissez-faire existed.  Congress had given the authority to almost any municipal, state, or federal court to make immigrants citizens of the United States once they had lived in the US for five years.  Until 1906, courts even used whatever forms they wished.  Since state district courts were the most accessible to residents, these were the most common destination for the immigrant who wished to become an American citizen.  Thus, if you are going to a county where an immigrant ancestor lived, you should definitely check for naturalization documents.  But note that if you don't find it there, they may have been naturalized in a municipal or federal court or even in some other place.  And a fair number of immigrants never naturalized.

The naturalization process.  The process changed over time, but for most of the time we are concerned about (post-1874), the prospective citizen could file a declaration of intention (or "first papers") once he had been in the United States for two years.  He received a document that he had to submit to the court when he filed his petition for naturalization ("final papers"), which he could file with a court once he had been in the US for five years.  Once approved, the court would give him a certificate of naturalization.  Until 1906, the only documents were held at the court that naturalized the citizen.  After 1906, a copy was forwarded to the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington, but the original file stayed at the court.

Until 1940, wives and children under age 21 were automatically naturalized when the husband/father was naturalized.  Only after 1906 are they even listed on the documents.  Single women and widows might undergo a separate naturalization, but this is quite rare.  And minor children who came to the US would only have a naturalization file if their father (or perhaps widowed mother) was not naturalized.  For example, my great -grandfather David Fast #86812 (1858-1932) arrived as a 16-year-old boy with his parents.  His father never naturalized, so he did file for naturalization as an adult when he wanted to homestead land.

Getting Ready.  Doing some research ahead of time will speed up your work at the courthouse.  The 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 censuses asked the year of immigration and citizenship status for each foreign-born person, so it can tell whether or not you should look for naturalization documents for a certain person (assuming that the census information is correct).  The citizenship status is indicated with three abbreviations, Al (alien), Pa (submitted first papers), and Na (naturalized).  The 1920 census added a question about the year of naturalization.  By 1940, the only question asked was the citizenship status of the foreign-born.  Some state censuses also asked about naturalization.

For example, in the 1900 census, my great-grandfather Heinrich F. Reimer #317342 (1856-1923) was reported to have immigrated in 1875 and was still an alien "Al".  Absent any other information from other censuses, it's probably not worth searching for his naturalization papers.  But another great-grandfather Jacob Suderman #319370 (1856-1906) reported that he had immigrated in 1882 (it was actually 1878) and had been naturalized (I haven't been to the courthouse to search for his file yet).  Since he had lived in two counties (Harvey County, Kansas, and Fort Bend County, Texas) between his immigration and the 1900 census, I should check the district courts in those two counties first.

You should also search in Ancestry.com for naturalization information.  There is an extensive card file from the INS that has brief information about many naturalizations, so it can give you a place to start.  Here is the index card for David Fast, my great-grandfather:

Naturalization index card for David Fast, 26 October 1909, Western District Court of Missouri, ARC: 572253; Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives at Kansas City, Missouri, accessed at Ancestry.com on 10 January 2014.

 Although brief, every piece of information is pure gold, including the date of naturalization, the court, date of immigration, port of arrival, residence, birth date, and names of two witnesses.  Most give a certificate number.  You can take this card to the courthouse and go right to the file, using the certificate number or date of naturalization.

At the Courthouse.  The naturalization records are generally stored with the clerk of the district court.  Most clerks know little or nothing about these records because they have not done naturalizations for several decades, although some clerks do know about them.  These records are usually not indexed but are in bound volumes by date - if you don't know the date, you may have to go through them page by page, which is why the census records and the INS card index are so helpful.

In the Texas County, Okla., courthouse, the clerk knew nothing about them until she recalled that her predecessor had mentioned boxes of old records stored on the top floor in the old jail.  I rode the elevator up with the clerk to the abandoned jail where we went to a cell being used to store records.  I climbed on a desk to get a box of papers from the top of a shelf, and there were bound volumes of naturalization records!  Later once I told the ladies at the genealogy room at the city library, they rescued the records.

Examples of Documents.  Here is the petition that I found in that old jail cell for my great-grandfather David Fast.  Actually, he had filed the petition in Fort Bend County, Texas, in 1906, where the court had given him this document as proof.  Then he submitted it to the court in Texas County, Oklahoma, with his petition for naturalization.

Declaration of intention of David Fast, 12 October 1906, District Court of Fort Bend County, Texas, no. 1, Clerk of District Court, Texas County Court House, Guymon, Oklahoma.

My favorite part is the personal description:  auburn beard, height of 5'4", weight of 151 pounds, etc.

Next is the petition that he filed three years later in 1909:

Petition for naturalization of David Fast, 4 March 1909, District Court of Texas County, Oklahoma, no. 67, Clerk of District Court, Court House, Guymon, Oklahoma.

Finally there was the plain-looking certificate that the court issued seven months later:

Certificate of naturalization of David Fast, 26 October 1909, District Court of Texas County, Oklahoma, vol. 4126, no. 66275, Clerk of District Court, Court House, Guymon, Oklahoma.

The new citizen got a more formal certificate to keep as proof, and my family is fortunate to have that in its possession.  My aunt gave me a copy:

Certificate of naturalization of David Fast, 26 October 1909, District Court of Texas County, Oklahoma,no. 66275, original held by Viola (Fast) Funk of Corn, Oklahoma.

Since this was a post-1906 naturalization, there is more information in the file, but even the pre-1906 files have good information.  Plus it's just fun to have the proof of your ancestor's naturalization in your hand.  So make it a priority to look for your immigrant ancestor's naturalization records any time you go to a county where he lived.

Going to the Courthouse - Tax Records

Given the inevitability of death and taxes, it is also inevitable that taxes had to be recorded at the courthouse.  Most counties levied property tax on those who owned real estate and livestock and on other assets as well.  Property tax records are valuable for two reasons - first, they are annual, so they fill in the gaps between the decennial censuses and purchases and sales of land.  Second, they show the major property that a person owned.  So definitely don't skip the property tax records.

Usually the older property tax records are no longer in the county assessor's office but archived somewhere.  These records are less used, so they are a bit harder to find.  But ask at the county assessor's office first.  I've really dug into them one time, and that was for Fort Bend County, Texas, and there they turned out to be in the Fort Bend County library's genealogy room on microfilm.  I've also found them at the county seat's historical library.  And they are probably not indexed, so it will take a bit of time to search them.

Here is an example of a property tax record for my great-grandfather David Fast #86812 (1858-1932) when he lived in Fort Bend County, Texas, in 1903.

G. J. Fast, Peter J. Fast, and David Fast, lines #8-10, Form B, Tax Rolls, 1903, Fort Bend County, Texas, no page, Fort Bend County Tax Rolls 1838-1910, George Memorial Library, Richmond, Texas, reel #1079-03.

There are three brothers, Gerhard, Peter, and David, who are living next to each other in the Mennonite settlement.  It gives the legal description for their land, the number of acres and the value of the land, and how many head of each kind of livestock and their value.  The second page, which I have not included here, shows the number and value of wagons and carriages, the value of stocks and bonds, the value of business inventory and other taxable property, and the amount of each type of tax due.  So even one property tax assessment shows a lot about a family. 

But even more interesting is to compare the three brothers over time since I found tax assessments for them for 1898 to 1906.  David was the oldest brother, and he had significantly more than the other two.  But all of them improved over time.  David started with 2 cows in 1898 but had 23 by 1905.  Brother Gerhard started with 1 cow and built up to 11 by 1906.  Brother Peter started with 2 cows and eventually had 8.  But my other great-grandfather who lived there, Jacob Suderman #319370 (1856-1906), started with 13 cows in 1899 and had 61 at his peak in 1903.  He had three times as much land as David Fast did and many more cattle, so he was clearly a wealthier man.  In fact, he had the largest piece of land in the Mennonite settlement.

Here's a little piece of a spreadsheet I made to analyze the tax information from all my ancestors and relatives in the county.  Putting it all together like this really showed the contrasts between them.

I was living in Houston, Texas, at the time, so it was easier to go to Richmond and spend 3-4 afternoons there digging the property tax records out of the microfilm.  The records will help to show residence and socioeconomic status for each year that the family lived in the county and owned taxable property.  No doubt, they will take some time, but they are well worth finding.